Saturday, May 30, 2015

Just in: Kuwait gives $1.5M to UN youth office

NEW YORK -- Kuwait will
offer a financial contribution
of USD 1.5 million to the Office of the Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth
over the coming two years, "in order to assist in realizing its
envisaged youth programs and activities."

The statement was made by the country's Minister of Information and Minister of
State for Youth Affairs Sheikh Salman Sabah Al-Salem Al-Humoud Al-Sabah in his
speech at the High-Level Event of the UN General Assembly to commemorate the
Anniversary of the World Program on Action for Youth.

The contribution was prompted by Kuwait's firm belief "in the importance
of enabling the youth, and in their role in building the human civilization,
and guided by the directives of His Highness Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al
Sabah, Leader of Humanitarian Work," Sheikh Salman added.

On behalf of the member
states of the Arab League, the minister extended thanks and appreciation to the
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, for "his sustained efforts to improve
the situation of world youth." He also thanked President of the UN General
Assembly Sam Kutesa "for his gracious invitation to convene this special
session on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the launch of the World
Program of Action on Youth." Kuwait is head of the current Thirty-Eighth
session of the Council of Arab Ministers for Youth and Sports, he said.

Sheikh Salman stated
that the Arab region has made progress in achieving the Millennium Development
Goals, but it "was not sufficient to achieve food security, combat poverty
and marginalization, and realizing the required social justice." According
to the minister, the Council of Arab Ministers for Youth and Sports adopted in
its recent 38th session several important resolutions on developing the Arab
Youth Policy." "At the same time we realize that the recent changes
and inter-connectivity occurring in the world, as much as they contributed to
the maximization and efficiency of the realized achievements, yet on the other
hand, have made it easier for the domestic problems, with all their ensuing
risks, to move to any other sport in the world," he said s quoted by KUNA.

This inevitably reduces
the space of action available for national and regional policies which aim at
establishing the desired security, development and stability in the context of
a fast increasing globalization, and the speed at which problems are moving
through the globe, Sheikh Salman added.

In this context, it is
"imperative that joint cooperation should be enhanced between concerned
United Nations organization and the League of Arab States, represented by the
Council of Ministers for Youth and Sports." Sheikh Salman referred to
"thorny challenges" the Arab world is facing, such as "poor societal
participation by the youth, and a lower per capita income of the Gross National
Income." -end-